? >> well, i didn't say that. i mean, i will tell you, i didn't say that. >> and jon karl with us live tonight at the white house. and jon, another headline breaking today. "the washington post" reporting that president obama knew that vladimir putin was directly involved in the russian hacking and that he had words with putin himself about it, but "the post" reports that president obama did not punish russia harshly because he was convinced hillary clinton was going to win? >> reporter: in fact, "the poels" reports that the cia in envelope marked eyes only, directly to president obama and three of his top aides. it included a message, saying that vladimir putin himself directed the attack. the president did, president obama did confront putin about that, but did little else and one official quoted in the story saying, i feel like we sort of choked. david? >> jon karl live at the white house. jon, thank you. >>> the senate tonight launching a new investigation, this time focucusing on loretta lynch. looking into whether lynch interfered in the hillary clinton e-mail case. earlier this

meant by "that thing." that was the last time i spoke with president trump. >> and so jon karl live with us from the white house. jon if the president told the president on multiple occasions he wasn't under investigation, why didn't comey go public that president trump isn't personally under investigation. >> comey said there were several reasons for not going public. primarily, because if it changed and if the fbi investigation began to turn to focus on president trump, comey said it would have been a duty to correct the record. by the way, david, we now have a statement from the president's personal attorney, noting that comey said, on three separate occasions that he was not under investigation. he says, the president feels completely and totally vindicated. david. >> vindicated the word from the president's personal attorney tonight. jon karl, our thanks to you. abc's chief legal analyst with us, dan abrams. comey did tell the president he's not under investigation personally. he also writes in the memo that president demanded loyalty, expects loyalty. on the michael flynn inve

israel to work on middle east peace. >> so, let's get to jon karl live at the white house. and jon, sean spicer was pressed again today on whether or not the president has secretly recorded conversations there at the white house, in particular, with james comey. no cameras orred all owe from that briefing allowed today. obviously, you were there. so, what did spicer say? >> reporter: at one point, spicer said the president would probably reveal by the end of the week whether those recordings exist. at another point, he said possibly by the end of the week. but the one thing that you will not see or hear are recordings of sean spicer today. david, and more and more of these briefings, the white house is simply not allowing news organizations to take video of spicer or to broadcast his words. >> that will be debated for some time to come. jon karl. our thanks to you. >>> and there are tensions with russia mounting tonight, after a u.s. fighter jet shot down a syrian war plane. russia now saying american and coalition plane will now be tracked as targets over parts of syria. the u.s.

a discussion with him about a subject, i tend not to speak about it. >> so, let's get to jon karl. live at the white house tonight. from his words, the president clearly seems frustrated with his attorney general. and tonight, your sources now telling you that frustration goes both ways? >> it does. in fact, david, i'm told after the president recently lashed out at the attorney general yet again, attorney general sessions said that he was more than willing to resign, when i asked -- when we asked the spokesperson for the department of justice whether or not in fact he had offered to resign, we got simply a decline to comment. david. >> jon karl with us live from the white house. more to come on this story for sure. >>> in the meantime, on thursday, abc news will carry director comey's testimony live with a special report at 10:00. right here on abc. >>> among those watching thursday's hearings, the president's sons, donald junior and eric. tonight, in an exclusive interview with abc's chief national correspondent tom llamas, don trump jr. speaking about the russian investigation now en

president told our jon karl he wants the testify, what the white house is now saying tonight. >>> also, the defense rests in the bill cosby sexual assault trial, after just six minutes and a single witness. >>> the penn state fraternity members waiting nearly 12 hours before calling for help. tonight the stunning moment in court as video of the dying student is played before everyone. >>> the urgent manhunt at the hour for inmates. how they got out. >>> the midair scare. a gaping hole in the jet engine, the passenger plane forced to >>> good evening. it's great to have you with us on monday night. we begin with several developing stories. among them, president trump's attorney general jeff sessions will be in the hot seat tomorrow under oath. likely asked about russia, about james comey and about that meeting in the oval office. did the president ask everyone to leave including the attorney general, everyone except for james comey? also tonight here, after our reporter asked president trump would you be willing to speak under oath, the president said 100%. what the white house is sayin

getting information coming in from jon karl as well our jon karl saying a member of the leadership is telling him that one staffer and one lobbyist also shot confirming the five people down. >> reporter: and, jon is reporting, george, that a senior member of gop leadership is telling him that scalise and members of his security detail as we know were hit. they say that scalise was hit in the hip and should be okay. of course, we saw those immanages of him right there on that stretcher after this incident. so some of the details that we do know at this point we heard from others that were on that scene. five people were shot, we're hearing between 50 to 60 possibly as many as 100 shots fired out there this morning. security being upped around the white house and the capitol right now. as we know that suspect is in custody as per just reported being treated at the hospital. the details from what happened at that baseball diamond just absolutely stunning. the security detail that opened fire on a shooter who was inside the dugout with what we're being told was a semiautomatic weapon, sen

karl and, jon, the white house didn't have much of a claim to executive privilege on this, but what else are they doing to counter comey's testimony on thursday which could be very grand strategy here to respond to comey. it certainly isn't obvious, george. for all the talk of setting up a war room here at the white house, we've heard for weeks now a war room to respond to the russia allegations, the russia investigation, nothing has been set up yet. the last time comey testified, the president sat down with a close circle of his top aides and watched it on television in the personal dining room right off the oval office where he has installed a big screen tv. i suspect that the response to this will probably come largely through the president's twitter feed although i do think you will see tough questions for comey from republicans, the biggest one, george, if there was any sense that the investigation was being hibnderd why did he not resign. >> the tweets on the travel ban creating a lot of consternation among government lawyers and a lot of supreme court experts now say what the

president has interfered in the russia investigation. let's bring in jon karl and, jon, not a lot of trust for the president in that poll but some indication from the white house that he's prepared to fight back tomorrow. >> reporter: absolutely, george. although sean spicer yesterday at the white house briefing would be too busy to watch the hearing, i am told that is just not true. that he has blocked out time to watch the hearing. some here expect that he will respond in realtime on twitter although, george, there is no plan to do so and the president has been advised by his lawyers that it is not a good idea to go on twitter. >> jon, there's been tension between the president and the attorney general over the russia investigation. the president angry with the attorney general for recusing himself and you reported yesterday he even suggested resigning? >> reporter: absolutely, george. the president has been enraged at the attorney general several times over the past several months, blowing up at him because he recused himself back in march from the russia investigation and at one

told our jon karl he wants the testify, what the white house is now saying tonight. >>> also, the defense rests in the bill cosby sexual assault trial, after just six minutes and a single witness. >>> the penn state fraternity members waiting nearly 12 hours before calling for help. tonight the stunning moment in court as video of the dying student is played before everyone. >>> the urgent manhunt at the hour for inmates.

ag and everyone else to leave the room. >>> also tonight, after the president told our jon karl he wants the testify, what the white house is now saying tonight. >>> also, the defense rests in the bill cosby sexual assault trial, after just six minutes and a single witness. >>> the penn state fraternity members waiting nearly 12 hours before calling for help. tonight the stunning moment in court as video of the dying student is played before everyone. >>> the urgent manhunt at the hour for inmates.

, after the president told our jon karl he wants the testify, what the white house is now saying tonight. >>> also, the defense rests in the bill cosby sexual assault trial, after just six minutes and a single witness. >>> the penn state fraternity members waiting nearly 12 hours before calling for help. tonight the stunning moment in court as video of the dying student is played before everyone. >>> the urgent manhunt at the hour for inmates.

which he would and he did that. he said by the end of this week and he's done that. >> jon karl with us live from the white house. you have reported before that some of the president's closest allies are getting in trouble with the tweets. are they concerned in and today's tweet actually seemed more carefully worded. >> his legal team is concerned about the tweeting, no question about that zaifd. bru this tweet did seem carefully crafted, white down to the punctuation and the white house press office saw the tweet before it went out. that almost never happens. >> jon, thanks as always. >>> we are also following dangerous weather at this hour. dangerous twisters and the atlanta area put on alert. one twister across birmingham, alabama. this strip mall. children in baseball helmets sheltering in bathtubs. 30 million people are in flood watches over 1,000 miles. and steve osunsami north of atlanta tonight. >> reporter: tornado warnings are up tonight. and there are twisters in the areas of alabama. >> it was really big. >> reporter: just outside birmingham, a torrent hit and from a mile

the coming days. >> jon karl at the white house tonight. jon, thank you. >>> we have two more legal questions tonight. one about the president and one about james comey as well. i want to bring in dan abrams. on this issue of michael flynn, the alleged request we heard about in the oval office. the president allegedly saying to comey, i hope you can let it go. comey pressed on that today. the president saying i hope, not i order you let it go. here's the moment comey was pressed on that point. listen. >> i hope you'll hold back on that but when you -- when the president of the united states in the oval office says something i hope, i suggest or would you -- do you think that as a directive? >> yes. >> well, look, i think that the way james comey took it is fairly clear, he took it as a directive, an order from the president, and it's an order that he said that he would ignore. why didn't he do something about it? he said he didn't want to derail the russia investigation. a bit of a bombshell, they specifically left open the possibility of investigating the president himself for that

jon karl. good morning, jon. >> reporter: good morning, george. comey's dramatic testimony has set up a new line of attack from the white house, a battle between the president and the former fbi director over who is telling the truth. in his first public appearance since being fired by president trump, james comey accused the white house of lying about him and lying about the fbi. >> the administration then chose to defame me and, more importantly, the fbi by saying that the organization was in disarray, that it was poorly led, that the workforce had lost confidence in its leader. those were lie, plain and simple. >> reporter: and comey left no doubt about why he believes he was fired. >> it's my judgment that i was fired because of the russia investigation. i was fired in some way to change or the endeavor was to change the way the russia investigation was being conducted. that is a very big deal. >> reporter: comey's testimony left president trump uncharacteristically speechless. >> thank you all very much. thank you. >> mr. president, any reaction to comey's testimony? any reaction

president can be emotional if he's provoked. let's get mor white house correspondent jon karl. as we've seen, the white house seizing on that confirmation from comey that he did tell the president three times that he was not personally under investigation. >> reporter: and one extraordinary fact about this is the president had been asking comey for months to come out publicly and to say that he was not a subject of the investigation. comey had refused to do that, and then after he's fired, today in this hearing, he will say just that. we have a reaction from the president's personal attorney, mark kass awits. he says the president feels completely and totally vindicated. he is eager to continue and move forward with his agenda. of course, george, what comey says is not that he is not under investigation now. comey might not even know that, frankly. the investigation is now being run, of course, by robert mueller. >> right, but how is the white house going to handle the other contradictio contradictions. the president has said he did not ask for a pledge of loyalty. the presidentla

comey's central claims about their private conversations and telling our jon karl that he is willing to testify under oath. >> the president giving cryptic answers, however, to repeated questions about whether he taped conversations in the oval office saying he will let us know soon. >> meantime, sources tell abc news the president's legal team is firing back filing a complaint with the justice department asking for an inquiry into comey for leaking details and memos of those private conversations. abc's mary bruce is in bedminster, new jersey, where the president is spending the weekend. mary, good morning to you. >> reporter: hi, good morning. well, the president is now on the offensive firing back at james comey saying he lied about their interactions during his sworn testimony before congress and now the president says he's willing to go under oath to prove it. this morning, it's his word -- >> those were lies, plain and simple. >> reporter: -- versus his word. >> some of the things that he said just weren't true. >> reporter: in his first remarks since james comey's stunning tes

could have been equally involved or it could have been involved unequally. >> jon karl joins us from the white house, and clear this us for us. for months, trump called the russia story a hoax. why is he now attacking president obama for not being tough enough on the russians? >> reporter: well, tom. he is clearly jumping on an opportunity to criticize president obama, but even as the intelligence community warns that russia will try to do it again, combatting russian interference has hardly been a priority at this white house, tom. >> jonathan karl, thank you. >>> we move onto the wildfires raging in the west. 21 large fires in seven states fueled by the extreme heat and strong winds. take a look at the flames moving quickly across near prescott, arizona, and burning close to the highway in california. more than 1,500 people forced to evacuate, hoping their homes can be saved. matt gutman is on the fire lines tonight. >> reporter: tonight an army of firefighters in utah battling a fire that has sent up walls of flame 100 feet high, torching an area the size of washington, d.c. >> i've n

jon karl. the president clearly seems frustrated with his attorney general. tonight, your sources telling you that frustration goes both ways. >> it does. after the president recently lashed out at the attorney general yet again, attorney general sessions said that he was more than willing to resign, when i asked -- when we asked the spokesperson for the department of justice whether or not in fact he had offered to resign, we got simply a decline to comment. david. >> more to come on this story for sure. >>> in the meantime, on thursday, abc news will carry director comey's testimony live with a special report at 10:00. >>> among those watching thursday's hearings, the and eric. tonight in an exclusive interview with tom llamas, don trump jr. speaking about the russian investigation now entangling the white house. >> you've described this whole thing as a witch zblunt to me it's not without a question reads and smells like a witch hunt. because i have no other proof or evidence to show otherwise. >> tom with us here in the studio. great to have you. another headline breaking whil

excuse. abc's jon karl pressed the white house about the comment. >> the president directly misrepresented what the mayor of london said. >> i don't think that's actually true. i think the media wants 0 spin it that way. >> you think the mayor was saying there's no reason to be alarmed by an attack on his city. you think that's what he was saying. >> i think the point is there is a reason to unbe alarmed. >> reporter: they're trying to scrap an up coming state visit. >> i don't think we should roll out the red carpet to the president of the usa in the circumstances where his policies go against everything we stand for. >> some other british lawmakers are now calling on prime minister may to cancel the president's state visit. so far no comment about the feud or the visit from may. >>> now, all of this as we're getting new details about the london terror attacks. let's start with the newly released security video that shows the heroic efforts by a restaurant manager and patrons trying to keep out one of the attackers who tried to get into the front door. >> police have public

the election. >> jon karl joins us now, and jon, any response from the first lady to the it president's tweets? >> reporter: we asked the first lady directly about this shortly after the tweets went out. what we got from her office was this statement. as the first lady as stated publicly when her husband gets attacked, he will punch back ten times harder. so no indication she considers this an example of cyberbullying. >> jon, the timing of all this couldn't be worse. the fire storm comes with republicans struggling to cut a deal on health care. >> reporter: and the republicans had hoped to have a deal by tomorrow. the vice president was on capitol hill today meeting with republican senators, but tom, as of this moment, there is no indication whatsoever of any further progress that they are any closer to getting a health care bill that will pass the senate. >> jonathan karl for us. jonathan, thank you. >>> in the meantime, the russian investigation is closing in on the president's inner circle. a correct me if i'm wrongshal committee wanting to question a man who served at t